WAGE OF £5 15/.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 200, 24 August 1937, Page 10

WAGE OF £5 15/.

WORKERS , REQUEST. FIRST EVIDENCE HEARD. COURT ON STANDARD RATE. A weekly wage for the skilled worker of not less than £5 15/ was asked by the chief advocate for the workers, Mr. James Roberts, when the hearing of evidence for the fixation of standard rates of wages was begun in the Arbitration Court yesterday. Mr. Roberts' evidence was the first heard. With Mr. Roberts are Messrs. F. D. Cornwell and P. M. Butler, both of Wellington. All three represented the New Zealand Federation of Labour. For the employers, Mr. D. I. Macdonald. secretary to the Canterbury Employers' Association, appeared, and with him were Mr. M. R. O'Shea, general secretary of the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation, and Mr. I. C. Howard, acting-secretary of the Auckland Employers' Association. Mr. Roberts, whose memorandum covered 33 foolscap type-written sheets, dealt first with the effects on economic life in the Dominion of the general reduction of wages of 10 per cent, made in 1931. Unemployment figures, he eaid, had increased from 17,098 ou May 18, 1931, to 57,352 in July, 1933. "The figures for these years," he said, "amply illustrate that wage-cutting is not the remedy for unemployment." Mr. Roberts then placed before the Court the effect of wage reduction ou factory production. In 1932-33, when salaries and wages were at their lowest, 68,921 persons were employed in factories, and wages and salaries paid were £12,048,148, while in 1935-36, employees numbered 86,588 and salaries and wages had increased to £14,844,307. Wages Lag and Trade Returns. After dealing with trade per head and the value of production, both of which lhad increased with the increase in wages, Mr. Roberts submitted that the figures he had placed before the Court indicated that the only way' to retain prosperity was to increase wages in accordance with the ability of the people to produce goods and services. Whenever there had been a wages lag it had adversely affected trade returns, reetricted volume of production, created unemployment and caused economic depression. Dealing specifically with the matter of wage fixation, Mr. Roberte submitted that a new method should be adopted in assessing wages, a method which should be based on cominon-eense principles. These were: (1) The commodity requirements of a family of five persons; (2) the prices of these commodities; (3) the wages necessary to buy them; (4) the ability of the people of New Zealand to produce the goods and render the services to supply the commodity required. Mr. Roberts then analysed some of the costs with which the worker was faced, like food, clothing, rent, etc Hie conclusion wae that a wage for five persons should .be between £5 and £5 7/6 a week. To this amount should be added between ljd and 3d an hour for the semi-ekilled worker. For the skilled worker, who had to serve an apprenticeship, he asked the Court to fix a rate of not less than £5 15/ a week. If an hourly rate were decided on, he suggested not less than 3/ an hour. He also made a plea for annual holidays on full pay for all workers. Drawing the threads of his arguments ■together, Mr. Roberts said he had realised that it was incumbent on him first of all to demonstrate to the Court that the productive capacity of New Zealand could afford an abundance of the goods and services required by the people. At present, however, the people were unable to buy those goods and services eolely through lack of sufficient income. He had shown, too, that wherever wages had been increased more employment, and greater prosperity both for worker and employer, had resulted. While he realised that in fixing wages the Court had to keep within the limits of the country's productive capacity, his own investigations, and the figures he had submitted, proved that there was still a great gap between the productive capacity of the worker and his weekly wage.

Mr. Cornwell also addressed the Court. He eaid that the application was 'based on two main points, that the 1931 wagee rates were not a fair and jiiet standard, and that since the Court had restored the 1931 rates the cost of livin-r had increased between 10 per cent and 12* per cent. The workers were losing a vast amount of purchasing power, and had been doing so for eome time. The weekly rates of wages suggested by Mr. Cornwell were £5 13/4 for skilled workers, £5 3/4 and £5 for semiskilled workers, and £4 16/8 for unskilled men. There was a proviso that if casual labouT was employed 41d an hour above the rates quoted should be paid.